The Lost

It was a dark and stormy night. Most of the sheep had come back to the
fold, but three were missing. The faithful watchdog was lying in the
corner in her kennel with her young and thought her toils were over for the day.
Suddenly the shepherd called her, and pointing to the flock cried: Three
are missing, go." She gave a sad look at her little ones, and then a look of
obedient love at her master, and off into the darkness she plunged. Back
she came after an hour with two of the sheep. There was blood upon her
and upon them. Hard she had fought for their lives with the thorns and
torrents, but they were saved. With a grateful look she threw herself
down in the kennel and gathered her brood to her bosom once more.
But once again the master called, with his stern but kind voice, and
pointing to the wilderness, said: "One is still lost, go." She looked up
in his face with a look of unutterable longing, but he still pointed to the
wilderness, and if looks could speak, her glance entered one last
farewell, and into the darkness she plunged once more. It was long ere she
returned. Late in the night a feeble scratching was heard upon the door. The
shepherd rose and opened it, and there she crouched half dead, and the poor wounded
sheep was trembling by her side. She had found the lost one but it was at
the cost of her very life. One look she gave into his face, which seemed
to say, "I have loved you better than my life," and then she crawled over
into her kennel and lay down with her little ones and grew still in death. She
had loved her master and had given her life for his lost ones.
If a dog could love like that, with no eternity to reward her, no heaven
to await her, only the smile of her master's approval in the last instant of
her life, what should He not expect from us for whom He has given His life
already, and to whom He wants to give a recompense that can never fade
away?

Shall we catch His glance as He looks out into the darkness and cries, "A
thousand millions are lost, go ye"?
Streams in the Desert